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Review: Wildwood Revival a welcome addition to summer in Athens

JP Harris and the Tough Choices perform during the Wildwood Revival in Arnoldsville, Ga. (Special/www.imageryforlife.com).

It’s hard keeping up with all the great stuff that goes on in Athens, even in the summer.

From AthFest to Slop Fest, ATHICA Emerges to Cine’s Summer Comedy Classic Series, the town might be half empty of students and vacationers, but us lucky stragglers have a lot to appreciate.

On Saturday, I experienced the newest can’t-miss event: the first annual Wildwood Revival Music Festival.

Barely 10 miles south of town in Arnoldsville sits Cloverleaf Farm, 30 awe-inspiring acres highlighted by a gorgeous 1859 farmhouse. Mostly used as an events facility for weddings, Cloverleaf Farm proved itself to be the perfect location for an outdoor Americana music festival with camping, vintage clothing booths, tin-type photos, and local, farm-fresh food. For a ticket price of $38, Wildwood offered a six-band musical line up and access to the lush pastoral grounds.

The campground was free of charge to ticket holders and provided an advance reservation option of renting a handmade tipi for $50. The bandstand was situated near barn with a bar serving Terrapin beers. Throughout the afternoon and evening, bands performed back to back with supper breaks so everyone could eat without missing a thing.

The line-up provided a wide-ranging cross section of Americana music covering bluegrass, blues, old-school country, country-soul, swamp boogey, and especially foot-stamping, raucous honky-tonk. Spanning these styles was a line up that geographically criss-crossed the South: Banditos of Birmingham; Rolling Nowhere of Hickory Flat, Ga.; JP Harris & The Tough Choices of Nashville; The Whiskey Gentry of Atlanta; The Deslondes of New Orleans; and Athens-born The Whigs, now based in Nashville. Among all the wonderful original songs and reinterpreted classic Americana standards were some crowd-pleasing covers like JP Harris & The Tough Choices crunchy, barroom rendition of The Rolling Stones’ “Dead Flowers,” and The Whiskey Gentry’s up-tempo version of Radiohead’s “Creep,” with churning fiddle and mandolin harmonies.

The culinary offerings provided were far more supper-club than typical festival concession stand.

Hickory smoked pulled pork from Anderson Farms, homestyle cheddar macaroni and cheese, garden veggie sautee, smoked salmon, and chicken wings with affordable combinations like Mac n’ Wings for $7, BBQ pulled pork and Mac for $7, and Meat and Two for $8 (pulled pork or smoked salmon with macaroni and cheese and veggie sautee). Vegetarians could enjoy Veggie Mac for $7, homestyle Fontina macaroni and cheese with sundried tomatoes and asparagus. After the Whigs finished their set, a late night snack was offered with choice of JP’s famous gumbo for $4 or a tomato sandwich on white bread for $1.

In regards to scale and intimacy between the bands and audience, Wildwood Revival felt more like a down-home barn party than a music festival. However, this description should in no way imply a poorly planned, amateurish event.

Members of all the bands milled about under the barn coverage appreciating the music of their colleagues and dancing with everyone else. During the supper breaks, everyone lined up together to purchase food and dining was spread across picnic tables, campsites, barn-covered tallboy tables, and wherever else the community could break bread together. Trucker caps and beards abounded, along with black denims and cowboy boots, and a mason jar of Terrapin beer in every hand.

While turnout seemed small by Athens festival standards, and I hope more of my music-enthusiast neighbors will attend next year, the smaller crowd combined with the sporadic precipitation was more intimate. Ironically, it might have been the forecast that kept more Athenians away, but everyone seemed to enjoy the cool drizzle more than sunshine induced sweat. My hope is that next year will see a greater turnout of Athenians while still retaining the barn party feel of camaraderie and community.